Friday, November 10, 2006

Free thought or thinking influenced by faith?.

It was interesting to read in Nature online, the contribution of several authors in relation to the topic :Science-Islam: To this respect, when: 1) Someone carries out searches in the web around this topic he finds that but of 90% of articles and books edited by writers and islamic scientifics approach the topic in an asymmetric way : "science and religion are in harmony, but 90% of the science should be governed by principles settled down in Koran, from where emanates the whole science." To read the Koranic sacred writings, is more than enough. Examples and continuous appointments to suras, are legion. Almost it would be said that in science, it is not longer necessary a lot to discover. Similar tendencies although but strong to those desired by the Christianity (Creationism vs Evolutionism). Of another side, in most Islamic countries exist the named Egyptian Islamic Brotherhoodwhose objectives are: to take the power, to oppose to western influences and to govern having like base to Korán. Similar visions to those of the Opus Dei. Or if you prefer visions based on fundamentalisms, spread to subordinate the science to that settled down in religious canons..2) Contrarily, when one qualifies the Gold Age of the Islamic science (600-1500 years a.C, contributions in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy), conclude that the element but valuable in that age was freedom of thoughtand constant self-criticism. In fact what today lacks in Islamic countries either democratically elected or run by governments definitively Islamic. The efforts and prioritizatión of the Islamic countries (in the current moment), to buy or to develop nuclear technology and/or ballistics can find explanation in necessities considered by them vital (defense and independence from West), advances in geology (frequent occurrence of earthquakes), etc, but not a true devotion for the science. The necessity like mother of the progress. 3) finally, being about establishing certain perspective to future we concludes that happily currents exist to the interior of Islam that foresee the creation of a science with independence of religious canons.